What is Biodanza?
There are many definitions, and I will leave you a few. However, I want to speak from the heart. So, if someone asked me "what is biodanza?", I'd probably say,
Yes, it's dance, but it's also some sort of embodied spirituality, a form of therapy, a way of knowing, a way of learning. It's all that and much more. It's about connection. Connection to self, to another, and to the group, which represents all that is. It's about surrendering to the music and to all that it triggers in you, to all those sensory, emotional, and physical responses. It's about being totally present in the moment and allowing the movements to flow through you, allowing the dance to manifest despite of you. So it's about dropping self-consciousness and opening up to something much bigger - love, your true nature.
Knowing myself, I'd probably go on and on, ad nauseum! So here's some "proper" definitions, as promised.
Biodanza is a profound system of healing, connection, joy and well-being using movement, music and emotion. It is an education to rescue the instincts of life and love. It stimulates deep motivations to live and a richer enjoyment of life [from Antoinette's site].
"[Biodanza is] a system of affective integration, organic renovation and relearning of the original life functions, based on vivencias induced by dance, singing and encounter situations in a group". Rolando Toro
Biodanza is a human integration system of organic renewal, of affective re-education, and of re-learning of the life original functions. Its application consists in leading vivencias through music, singing, movements and group encounter situations [from IBF's site].
Biodanza has evolved over the last four decades in Latin America and Europe under the vision of founder Rolando Toro Araneda - formerly lecturer in Psychology & Medical Anthropology at the University of Santiago, Chile. "Bio" is from the Greek "Bios" = "life". "Danza" signifies "movement full of meaning". It is a system of human integration stimulated by music, movement, emotion and expression [from Elizabeth's site].
Biodanza is a system of human integration and growth, stimulated by music, rhythm and emotion. Biodanza aims to promote personal development and a richer enjoyment of life. It is based on the knowledge of universal laws which allow the conservation and evolution of life in a healthy way. It promotes the global expression of our latent potentialities, be they of a physiological or psychological nature [see here].
Biodanza is a system for acceleration of integrative processes at the cellular, metabolic, immune and existential levels. Its practice is based on creating an environment enriched with carefully selected stimuli. This stimulation occurs mainly through music and exercises capable of generating vivencias that stimulate neuronal plasticity. In other words, they stimulate the creation of new synaptic networks that awaken a series of potentialities that previously had no means of expression. It is a highly integrative process that has prophylactic and curative effects [translated from here].